..coming to you from Taravana Yacht Club

by Nancy Knudsen, Cruising Editor on 4 Aug 2007 As issue goes out, the 2007 Sydney International Boat Show is in full swing. As well as a super range of boats and gear on display, there's a great show on the Boating Stage with lots of information and entertainment. Run! If you've opened your email in time you may not have missed it yet! It finishes on Tuesday.

Meanwhile back here in Tahiti, on Blackwattle we've taken a mooring at Taravana Yacht Club on the Island of Taha'a in French Polynesia, where the seabed is 35 metres down. It's really a restaurant masquerading as a yacht club, but the deal is good – while it's $20 a night for the mooring, if you drink at their bar, the mooring is free. I can see the crew of Blackwattle steadily drinking our way through the weeks......

In this issue Maggie Joyce tells of great sailing in Tonga during the Kalia Cup Yacht Rally this year, and how you can sail Tahiti in 2007. Deni Linforth tells how easy it is to enjoy a Whitsunday sailing holiday, and from Blackwattle, we tell of our relaxing – and surprising - stay in Moorea without smoke from any direction.

Lots of hi-jinks on the high seas this week, and a couple of interesting and successful rescues. One of a solo sailor who hit Elizabeth Reef just south of Middleton Reef in the Tasman and the other of a dismasted catamaran in the Indian Ocean (one Australian on board) – both stories have unusual twists, and raise VERY interesting issues.

Also for Sydneysiders, the National Maritime Museum has a fine range of entertainment and displays in August and September, which are profiled in this issue.

On the practical side, we talk about practicing with your storm sails – well do you? - and there's a new online resource for finding that product to solve your maintenance problem that your local chandlery just doesn't carry.

Lots more too, so read on, enjoy, and..

Sail Safe!